You’re considering changing your marketing services provider and since “nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM,” you’re looking at the biggest players in the industry, right? You certainly wouldn’t be alone. The process of moving from one MSP to another is fraught with anxiety and the great unknown. The process takes a long time and there are so many intangibles to consider. Review the top seven reasons prospects tell us they want to include small- and mid-sized firms in their search process

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FIFTH GEAR ANALYTICS

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

[Work] Consumer Decision-Making Theories and Strategies That Work

Bob McCarron. In an earlier post , I discussed the different theories behind the way consumers make purchase decisions. Quick recap: The Utility Theory basically holds that consumers make decisions based on the expected outcomes of those decisions. Satisficing contends that consumers are willing to settle for something that is good enough and will move on. The Prospect Theory lists two main factors in a consumer’s decision-making process as Value and Endowment (the notion that my owning something is better than your owning that same item). Related Articles: How Do Consumers Make Decisions?

Wendy Boyce. No sales cycle should ever be looked at from a cookie cutter approach, but this is especially true when examining the B2B sales process. In B2B transactions, there is no way to fully predict the decision-making hierarchy, as every organization has a different marketing or purchasing structure with unique buyer types. This can make your B2B marketing messaging a challenge. Tweet This!

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FIFTH GEAR ANALYTICS

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

[Work] Unified Marketing: Buzzword or Bellwether?

direct mail piece will be created by the marketing department – again, marketing will do the creative work in its own silo. If you look at the model above, sadly, the marketing group is not working with the Internet group, which isn’t communicating with the mobile group. Kenyon Blunt. The newest buzz-phrase to hit the marketing scene is Unified Marketing. And it is.

It’s also a time to assess how our strategies to engage with customers are working and to develop the plans (and the hopefully the budgets!) As 2010 draws to a close, it is time for all of us to reflect on all we have accomplished both on and off the job. to take it to the next level in 2011. Before we get too carried away on our big plans for next year, however, let’s make sure we have the right foundation in place to make our future CRM initiatives are successful. It reminds me of the phrase my dad told me when learning how to build things…”make sure you measure twice, and cut once”.

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FIFTH GEAR ANALYTICS

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

[Work] Seven Reasons Why You Should Pick an Analytics and Creative Partner Under One Roof

Benefit : Every creative communication and strategy works to build trust, loyalty and, ultimately, repeat business with your customers. So, unlike with other media, you know what works and what doesn’t. Benefit: You benefit from a team of creative experts that works side-by-side, day after day, with analysts who are mining your data to uncover the best opportunities. This team will work seamlessly with you or your general agency to design integrated creative that achieves results and drives revenue. Barb Coté. Reason 5: Intelligent creative does more than sell.

Change something, because the customers are clearly telling you something isn’t working. Andrew Lucyszyn. In this age of tweeting of every customer’s every impulse, and the power of exquisite multivariate tests to generate thousands of permutations, there is no shortage of data inputs that can drive a business’s reactions to, well, nearly everything. Web analytics is a balance of a number of different disciplines, but unlike a #16 seed in the NCAA basketball tournament, it’s never one-and-done. You can’t turn an A into a C when there was never an A in the first place. Tweet This!
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Marketing and sales are frequently working at cross-purposes. It’s hard enough to make lead generation work, but when you add on the additional complexity of having multiple business units competing for the same leads, the process breaks down in a hurry. Kenyon Blunt. recently called on a client and he described his vision of lead generation as “frosting and cherries.” Let me explain. His view is that the current state of lead generation is dead. Salespeople in the “Internet world” have relied on leads from marketing which are neither good nor productive. Tweet This!
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As I work to raise awareness within my organization of the importance of buy-in from all company personnel in the adoption of social media practices, I’m surprised by how few actually follow best practices. Wendy Boyce. Social Media in the B2B space has become a hot topic lately. Companies are using the social space to get themselves found and attract new leads and business opportunities. One of the major players in B2B social media is LinkedIn. recently shared this presentation on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile for search. and Bing. Tweet This! Share this on Facebook.
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[Work] 5 Keys to Successful Website Design, Development and Deployment.

HOWEVER, the creation of assets and planning necessary to have a great site at launch requires a lot of hard work. Launching a new website can be relatively painless. SIGMA's Creative Director, Barb Coté, and I, sat down and reflected upon our recent website redesign of www.sigmamarketing.com. Together, Barb and I were able to identify the following as the 5 key elements that enabled us to successfully and relatively painlessly deploy our brand new website
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few years ago, the next generation of Unified Communications (UC) ushered in capabilities that changed the way people work. Although making it all work across an organization isn’t always easy, the combination of different data brought together and integrated into business processes is allowing quicker and better business decisions. Mike Fuqua. What were once seen as disparate technologies had unified and delivered business value when UC was imbedded into operational processes. Analysts and media have even begun reporting that UC improves customer engagement and satisfaction.
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